36 July 15, 2009

It has been so nice to see the sun for several days in a row. The weather forecast is even calling for this whole week to be sunny. Let’s all cross our fingers and hope for the best in the weather department.

There have been reports that the Japanese Beetles are beginning to emerge from the lawn. Please keep an eye out for this beetle and begin to treat your plants with an appropriate insecticide as soon as you see them on your plants. These beetles can cause major damage to plants in a short period of time.

Japanese beetles feed on plants during July and August. During this time, the female lays eggs in the lawn and around the first of September the eggs hatch out and become the white grubs that eat the roots of your grass. If you want to reduce the damage caused by the grubs, now would be the time to apply the season long grub control. This product takes about 30 days to attach itself to the roots of the grass. Once it is attached to the roots it will remain in the roots all through the fall and it will kill the tiny grubs as soon as they begin to feed. This is a good way to head off the attack of grubs that kill the roots of your lawn.

There is also an organic grub control that you can apply to your lawn. It is called Milky Spore. Milky spore is a bacterium that attacks and kills the grubs of the Japanese beetles. It is a powder that is applied to the lawn and then watered into the lawn. Once the Milky Spore is established in your lawn, it remains active in your lawn for at least 10 years.

Insects and fungus diseases continue to be a problem on annuals, perennials and vegetable plants. You should be taking some time each week to look at your lawn and gardens to see if you have any developing problems with insects and or diseases. If you catch any infestation early enough, you can almost always stop the problem in its tracks. The key to this is early treatment. If you wait until the insects or diseases are well established, it is difficult to knock out the problem.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.